UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged delegates from more than 190 countries at COP28 to close ranks to "end the fossil fuel era."
"This conference has to be the turning point," Guterres said on his return to Dubai in the final stretch of the negotiations. "I'm back to renew my urgent call to leaders to stay within the 1.5 degree limit and ensure climate justice."


Guterres' call came just hours after the warning issued by COP28 President Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber himself: "Failure is not an option (...) I call on the parties to be ambitious as possible. The time has come to shift gears and reach an agreement on greenhouse gas emissions."


The main point of contention in the final text, which should be approved by consensus, is the explicit mention of phase out versus phase down of fossil fuels as a goal shared by the international community.


Saudi Arabia and a group of allies continue to express opposition to the use of the word "elimination." The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), to which host United Arab Emirates also belongs, has pressed its members to address this option.

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China has softened its opposition in recent days and its special envoy for climate change, Xie Zhenzhua, is expected to reach some kind of compromise with his U.S. counterpart John Kerry. An agreement in principle between the two biggest emitters could pave the way for a positive turn in the final leg of negotiations.


The European Union has already offered its own proposal for the "phase-out" of fossil fuels "without mitigation", another point of contention that would leave out of the agreement gas and oil whose emissions can be "captured" and stored (despite doubts about the ability of large-scale CO2 sequestration technologies).


COP28 officially ends on 12 December, but negotiations usually extend into marathon sessions during the early hours of the morning and usually last for at least a day.

  • Environment
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  • Articles Carlos Fresneda